I can still remember how my first love broke my heart. We were together for a little over 8 years, spending time together almost every single day. I worried occasionally that we would eventually part ways– I knew it wouldn’t last forever– but when the end came, I wasn’t prepared. Saying goodbye was more difficult than I expected. I thought about all that we had done together and all the things that would remain undone. Even now, years later, it still makes me sad to remember the love I felt for City of Heroes and I have to ask myself “is an MMO worth playing?”

An Age of Heroes!

I first heard of City of Heroes sometime in 2003, I believe. I know it was several months– maybe 6– before the game actually launched. At the time, I was playing a lot of another superhero game, Freedom Force, and really enjoying it. When I saw the early ttrailers for City of Heroes (CoH) I fell instantly in love. I wanted the game right then and there. The idea of building my own superhero, with whatever powers I wanted and a costume designed by me was really exciting and was something I’d hoped for for years. I never expected to be able to do that outside of a pen-and-paper RPG. The only thing that didn’t thrill me was that it was an online game.

Back then, I had no real experience with online gaming. I’d played exactly two other games prior to then that allowed me to play with other players online. The first was a Star Trek game that I can’t even remember, and the second was the original Neverwinter Nights. I thought the idea was kind of cool, but I preferred the idea of playing a powerful hero who could handle the archvillains on his own. I also didn’t want to be dependant on other people to complete missions.

When I first started playing, I mostly played solo.I probably would have continued to be a solo player if not for my wife. I was working a ot of nights at the time, and so she found herself looking for things to do when I was not there. What she found was CoH.

My wife made a couple of friends in Paragon City during her time playing. The first, she played with only a few times, but soon she found a couple of other players that she started to team with regularly, Not long after, I found my schedule changing somewhat, which allowed me to start playing with her and her group. To my surprise, it turned out to be an awful lot of fun to team up with a group of other players, but with that fun, came some concern. I started thinking about the long-term playability of the game. It wasn’t that I didn’t think the game would continue to hold my interest– I knew it would– but rather I was concerned about the game being shut down at some point.

I started asking around about what would happen if the servers would be shut off. Not knowing at the time how MMOs operated, I hoped that I would be able to continue playing as normal, but without the ability to team. I was sad to discover that this would not be a possibility.

My time playing CoH was amazing. I made some great friends, one of whom I was able to meet in real life. I wrote tons of background info and stories for my characters, including at least two short novels. One of the other players joined me in the story writing, and all the group’s characters started to tie together in one large, complicated soap-opera. It was awesome.

The came the day I’d been dreading: we were told that CoH would be shut down,

It was quite a blow. A wonderful community had formed around playing CoH. Perhaps it was becaus we were playing heroes, but most of the players were generally good, kind, helpful people as opposed to the players we always heard about in other games. The CoH community worked together to help each other, in the game and out of it as well. They even did fundraising for charities.

I was there for the last moments of the game, before everything went dark. Logged in as the very first character I had made, I stood together with other players, torch held high, counting down the minutes and then the seconds like some dark, twisted New Year in a mirror universe.

And then it was gone.

Several years of playing, hours of creating and developing characters and untold missions with friends had ended with a disconnect message. The sun had set one last time on Paragon City. The heroes and villains that had given me so much pleasure were no more.

The fans didn’t take it well. Efforts were made to rescue the game. Some of them continued literally for years. Ulimately, nothing could be done. Players, suddenly set adrift by the loss of their online home, began searching for other games, but generally ended up disappointed by what they found. The Age of Heroes had ended.

However…

When it became clear that City of Heroes would never really return, a number of successor projects sprang into existence. Though none have released yet, tremendous progress has been made in their development. One game in particular, Ship of Heroes has caught my attention, coming seemingly out of nowhere to suddenly become the game that I am looking forward to the most, although all of the successor project appeal to me for different reasons.

Once Bitten, Twice Shy…

I have to admit, though, as great as these new games look, I don’t know if I will be able to bring myself to play. After the experience with CoH, I find myself wondering if I really want to invest time and money into a game that I am, effectively, renting and never really owning. The idea that I could spend hours creating new characters and becoming invested in their stories only to potentially have them snatched away from me fills me with dread. I don’t know if I want to go through that again, especially if the community is half as good as the one that CoH had (which seems very likely given that the CoH players are all watching and waiting for a game to arrive).

Not too long ago, Marvel Heroes became available for the PS4 and I downloaded it partly for myself, but also for my younger son, who is on a superhero kick at the moment. I thought it could be fun to play together. Now, only a few months after we started playing, it has been shut down. (It was due to be shut down last Friday, but was still playable as of yesterday, Sunday. I am not sure if it is still accessible or not. Even if it is, it won’t be for long.)

I just don’t know if I trust online games anymore.

I know there are many games out there that have been up and running for many years, and still have large,active communities, but at some point, pretty much every game will turn of the servers and shut players out. When that happens, even if you are still loving the game and playing daily, you are just out of luck.

I know I am kidding myself. I will try these new games and likely get hooked on them. But knowing that I may find myself unable to play at some point through no fault of my own kind of diminishes my enthusiasm, and that’s why I have to ask if an MMO is really worth playing.

What do you think? Do you worry about this sort of thing or is it just me? Is it enough to keep you from trying a game? Share your thoughts below!

Do you want to try you hand at surviving the zombie apocalypse, but video games aren’t your thing? Or maybe you just want to have some companions with you during the struggle? Dead of Winter allows you to face off against the hordes of undead– and potentially other players– in a tense, fun board game experience.

It’s co-operative, but…

Dead of Winter sees you and your friends playing a group of survivors trying to get through the winter during a zombie apocalypse. Struggling against not only the zombies themselves, but also nature and one another, players have assorted goals to accomplish to win the game, including potentially betraying the other survivors.

Choosing a scenario, details the specific conditions of victory for the group. Each of the 10 scenarios has a “Hard” variant for added challenge. Each player then chooses two characters that they will play, representing their own faction within the larger community of the colony.

Each of your survivors has scores in Influence, Attack and Search, as well as a special ability. Will your survivor be efficient at killing zombies, or at finding resources? You’ll have to play to each character’s strengths to survive. Is your character helping to build the colony, or will you stab the others in the back to save your own skin? You will have to make decisions throughout the game, prioritizing the survival of the group or your own goals.

Dead of Winter

Each round, the colony faces a crisis of some sort, adding a short-term goal that needs to be achieved to overcome a significant penalty. Failing means a drop in the colony’s morale or something even worse, while success might provide the colony with a boost.

During each round, your character may move around the colony, scrounging for resources, but this is always a risky proposition, for it may result in frostbite, injury or a bite from one of the seemingly-endless numbers of zombies. Will you risk it your life looking for supplies? If you don’t, well, what are you going to eat?

While resource management is important, as is constant vigilence against the undead, much of the real tension in the game comes from not knowing which of the other survivors ou can trust. Or perhaps you are the traitor, attempting to meet your personal goals without being discovered. If you are not aggressive enough in the pursuit of your goals you will fail, but become too obvious and the colony may ostracize you, forcing you to try to survive on your own.

Zombies!

If you are looking for a tense, fun game full of zombie-bashing and potential betrayal, check out Dead of Winter. Just remember to bring snacks for everyone.

Many comics celebrate “anniversary” issues, such as issue numbers 25, 50, 75 and 100. Long-running comics may reach impressive milestones like 200, or even 500. Now, eight decades after his first appearance, Superman is set to break the 1,000 issue mark.

What could DC possibly be planning for such a momentous event?

Action Comics Volume 6

There are plenty of rumours, of course. It is virtually a given that the issue will be a giant-sized issue, with some speculation that it will be a trade-sized book. Upcoming trade collections of Action Comics can be pre-ordered on Amazon, with Volume 5 containing issues 993-999 and Volume 6 containing issues 1,001- 1,006. Clearly, issue 1,000 will be too large to include in these collections, which raises the question of how big it will be and what it will include.

We know that issue 1,000 will be preceeded by a hardcover book celebrating 80 years of Action Comics and looking back on the introduction of characters like Brainiac and Supergirl. Details on the actual issue, however, are scarce, though we know it will contain multiple stories, including one by Geoff Johns and Superman the Movie director Richard Donner.

Then of course, there is the speculation from Jon Bogdanove in one of his Facebook posts from April 11″

“Hey, about this business with Superman’s shorts– or “The Modesty Briefs Affair”, wherein people, including me, have speculated that the reason Superman doesn’t wear red trunks anymore is because Siegel and Shuster’s heirs figuratively “sued the pants off him” (to quote a FB pal): I want to reconfirm that everything I have said, and will say here, is just that—SPECULATION. It is based entirely on rumors I have heard from various current and former DC folks and other people inside the industry. Let me reaffirm: I could be wrong…

“…Someday, I would love to read the settlement that finally ended the nearly 70 years long legal struggle of Superman’s creators and their surviving heirs, to recoup a bigger share of the profits generated by their invention…

“…I think this final chapter of the war— this final case— came down to a fine-tooth, point-for-point argument over specifically which defining characteristics of Superman were actually created by Jerry and Joe before they came to DC and started laboring as “work-for-hire”.

“For example, Superman’s red boots replaced his Greek lace-ups AFTER Jerry and Joe signed him over. Likewise, the “S” emblem continued to evolve from the original while Jerry and Joe were under contract, as did much of his likeness and appearance– EXCEPT for the modesty briefs. Apparently, that’s the one original characteristic that persisted unchanged from before the boys ever approached DC until the resolution of this case.

“As a result, the briefs are the one thing Jerry and Joe’s family were able to hold onto– or regain. DC can’t use the pants without paying the heirs a little something— or so I’m told. Word on the street is that someone at DC or Warners is angrily determined never to pay for those shorts, so off they came!”

Bogdanove goes on to say that he feel there is a case being made for the return of the briefs, perhaps in issue 1,000:

“Now, there is also buzz that Dan Jurgens, and others in the company, have campaigned hard in favor of the traditional, classic, populist brand, appearance and costume– and that Diane Nelson or someone up top recognizes the dollar value of that brand as being worth much more than what it costs to rent the shorts from the heirs.

This buzz suggests that Superman will be restored to his true self in ACTION #1000– which would be awesome in the extreme… I think the effects would be restorative across the industry.”

There aren’t too many things that divide Superman fans they way the red briefs– the so-called “underwear on the outside”– have done.Some love them as a part of the classic Superman look, while others feel they are ridiculous.

Put me in the first group.

The briefs are iconic. They have been a part of Superman’s costume for longet than the majority of his fans have been alive. From a visual standpoint, they also serve as a visual “break” between his upper and lower body. The current red belt helps, but not as much as the briefs did.

Personally, I think seeing the briefs again would instantly bring back memories of better days in comics. We can break away from the doom and gloom that is still popular in many mainstream comics. As I have said before, I think we are definitely due for a return to more heroic heroes, and I think that restoring Superman to his classic appearance would be a step in that direction

What do you think? Should the briefs return, or are they best forgotten? What would you like to see in Action Comics 1,000, or in the ongoing adventures of Superman and the rest of the DC universe?

Well, now. Looking at the Millennium Falcon from Lego, I just might have to change my mind about those little bricks.

I have to admit something: I never used to like Lego when I was a kid. Sure, we had some in my home, as did most of my friends, but it wasn’t like today, with all the fancy sets and cool figures. Nope. What we had was a large cardboard box with a bunch of miscellaneous pieces. I don’t think we even had a single Lego figure.

One of my friends was very good at creating things. I remember him building a Veritech fighter (from Robotech/ Macross, if you aren’t familiar with it) that actually transformed. I don’t mean it could be taken apart and reassembled in the new form, it transformed from jet to robot and back again. I was in awe, considering that my Lego abilities consisted of making squares and rectangles. If inspiration struck me, I might add wheels, thus creating a “car”. At the height of my creative powers, I was able to create what looked like a stick man out of mismatched pieces.

My first son became a big Lego fan when he was young, falling in love with Ninjago. As a result, I found myself playing with Lego, to my great surprise. My son was too young to build the sets that he was interested in, so I wound up helping him. Before I knew it, I was also watching Ninjago with him, and I found that it was actually quite good. By the time the Lego Movie came out, I was officially a Lego fan, but mostly for the various shows. I had grown to like some of the toys, but not exactly love them.

Now, we have the Millenium Falcon, and even I have to admit it is pretty sweet. With an incredible (and daunting) 7,541 pieces, and a reported assembly time of 36+ hours, I am not sure if I could successfully build it, but boy, would I like to try…

Some reviews have been mixed, with many of the poor reviews citing the exorbitant price as the main negative point, but I know Star Wars fans who would happily pay in the thousands for this set.

Check out the video below and see if you are brave enough to tackle this monster. If you are, it is still currently available through Amazon, but with limited quantities pushing the already-high price through the roof.

Just as a follow up to my previous post about Ship of Heroes, here is the new trailer shown at Pax West on September 3rd. The game is coming along nicely, and I just know I will spend hours with the character creator alone!

What do you think of the new footage? What are you most excited for in Ship of Heroes? Let me know in the comments below!